


Brooklyn

by songbirdlaidahand



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-06
Updated: 2015-02-06
Packaged: 2018-03-10 18:17:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3299309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/songbirdlaidahand/pseuds/songbirdlaidahand
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carmilla AU. </p><p>Carmilla, a young bartender in Brooklyn NY, has a regular bar customer that catches her eye.</p><p> </p><p>On hiatus... (i really wanna get back to this story this summer, 2018)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brooklyn

_____________________________________

It was a busy night. I tended to like busy nights as it usually meant I worked overtime and made even more money. Because one day after saving, the world would be mine to explore. I was so tired though. I hadn’t been sleeping well, nightmares and such. 

“Hey! You! Woman!” I heard from a severely inebriated guy at the end of the counter. 

I rolled my eyes and made my way over to be polite. 

“Yes?”

“Another round!” The guy gestured to his even more inebriated friends around him. 

I sighed and poured another round of the local brew that no one seemed to like as they wouldn’t know the difference. I glimpsed a regular customer enter and take her usual seat after nudging a drunk guy away from it. 

I walked over to her “Hey there, your usual?” 

She nodded “Yeah and some fries tonight.” 

I smiled and nodded sending in her fry order to the kitchen. I quickly whipped up her usual drink, a pomegranate martini. 

I passed it to her “As per usual.” I smiled. 

She grinned shyly “Thanks.” 

I nodded and took to serving other customers who were pouring into the already crowded bar. I kept checking in on the girl as the night went on. Her usual nights were the busy ones but that was okay as she seemed to have a great time people watching. After 1am the bar had emptied. The girl still sat at her same stool watching as the last person hobbled out of the bar. 

I walked over to her “You’re still here.” 

She smiled “Yep.” She rested her head on her hand “So how come you don’t wear a name tag?” 

I smirked “That would be so not rock n roll.” 

This made her chuckle “Alright.” 

I leaned on the bar “I’m Carmilla.” 

She beamed “I’m Laura. Carmilla is a really beautiful name!” 

“Thanks, it’s Eastern European.” 

She looked impressed “Wow, how did that happen?”

I laughed “Well my mother is from Austria.” 

She nodded and paused for a moment “How long do you usually work till, I usually have headed home by now, don’t have work tomorrow though.”

“I close up about 3.” 

“Wow... So you are Austrian... Were you born here?”

I shook my head “No, I was born in Austria as well.”

“You’re so much more interesting than me!” 

I chuckled “I doubt that cutie.” 

She rolled her eyes “Well I was born in a tiny town in Ontario.” 

I pulled over the stool I kept behind the bar “That sounds like it could be interesting.” 

“It was mostly farming there, I had a rabbit though.”

I rose my eyebrows “Wow, living wild.”

I took out a couple of glasses to pour us some water “So creampuff, what do you do here in the big city?” 

“I’m an intern at the Times.”

I nodded very impressed “That’s amazing actually, those are very competitive positions.”

She smiled “You know anything about the business.” 

I nodded “Some, my younger brother is looking into journalism.”

“That’s cool, I don’t have any siblings.” 

“Sometimes they’re good and sometimes they’re a severe pain.” 

Laura smiled “What’s your brother’s name, is it as cool as yours?”

“Nope, his name is William.” 

“How very English.” 

I shrugged “Yeah, no idea what happened there.” 

Laura looked around at the completely empty bar “What do you do when it gets this quiet, does it get boring?” 

I shook my head “No, I usually come up with new drink mixes or pull out the small back and white tv I keep under the bar.”

“You keep a tv under the bar!”

I got up and retrieved a small older tv with two antennas sticking up off of it. “I keep telling the owner that he needs to put in flat screens but for now I use this.” 

I set it down on the counter “It works pretty well actually.” 

This girl was seriously adorable as she poked and prodded the old tv. I plugged it in tuning to an old rerun of The Munsters. Laura and I watched two episodes before she mentioned that she really should get home. 

As she approached the door she turned around “I’ll see you next time... Carmilla.” With that she was gone. 

I slumped on the bar. I had had a slight crush on the girl before but after talking to her for a couple hours I knew my crush was getting way too deep. But that could be a good thing... Maybe. I just had to get up the courage to ask her out. 

____________________________________

It was a busy night again, the usuals were back. It was an hour after Laura’s usual time and yet she was nowhere to be seen. It was more packed than usual though so she could have been hidden amongst the crowd, she was certainly small enough. 

After four hours the bar had finally emptied out considerably and yet still no Laura. I kept myself distracted. A man had thrown up on the end of the bar which took me longer than necessary to clean as it smelled more rancid than a skunk. Twice as much beer had gone out as usual to a rowdy group of football fans who had just come from an apparently very exciting Giant’s game. Why they had come all the way to a bar in Brooklyn one could only guess. 

It was 2:30am and I had already done last call and the bar was empty, still no Laura. I sighed. It didn’t take long to wipe down the bar and tables. I threw on my jacket, took out some cash for a cab, and locked up the bar. 

New York was starting to get that slight crispness of autumn to the air. It was refreshing and yet I always missed summer. It wasn’t long before the cab pulled up to my building. My two little chihuahuas were waiting for me. They bounced behind the door as I entered.

I leaned down to scoop them up “Oh my precious little babies, how cute you are, beautiful tiny cute little things.” 

I proceeded to hug them close as I turned the corner to the living room. Will was stretched out asleep on the couch with The History Channel playing in the background. I sat down Alsace and Lorraine who quickly licked at his face as I nudged at him with my knee.

“Get to your room Will, remember the last time you slept on this couch, I heard about it for a week.” 

Will grunted but pulled himself up “Fine.” 

I pulled him into a hug “Don’t forget to brush your teeth.” 

I couldn’t see his face but I could feel him roll his eyes. He clomped down the short hallway into the bathroom. I collapsed onto the couch trying to figure out which war the current program was discussing. My two little girls made quick work of curling up next to me and falling fast asleep. 

The tv did nothing to help me not dwell on where Laura could have been. I began to worry that maybe I had scared her off. That sort of thing had happened in the past but I never let myself dwell on it. I sighed, what if I had scared Laura away. Maybe I wasn’t in any shape to be flirting. She probably had no interest in me whatsoever. There were so many good bars in the city, she more than likely found a newer, better one. One with a prettier bartender. Or maybe a male one. Laura could always be straight.

My brain spent a good two hours going over our last interaction. Dissecting it and analyzing it to the point of no meaning. Trying to find subtext. I really despise subtext. I guess I’d just have to accept that I once again was scaring a girl away. Seemed typical I guess. What was I to really expect. Yet this time I was much sadder. She just had a quality that drew me too her. I wanted so bad to get to know her for reasons I couldn’t justify and that were probably far too complex for my late night brain. 

___________________________________

I woke to Will poking my shoulder and handing me a mug of coffee. “Wake up ya weirdo.” 

I took the coffee and brought it to my lips. It tasted perfect, of course Will had known how I took my coffee since he was 5. He drank it the same way. “Will why have you woken me up so early on a Friday?”

“Because you said you wanted to get up early today so we could go to the farmer’s market.” 

I shook my head “When did I say this?” 

“Two days ago.” 

“Right, and how did I agree to let you miss a day of school to go to the market?” 

“You said missing a day wouldn’t hurt me and that we could take the two girls.”

I thought for a second “Hmm that does sound like me... At least let me shower.” 

After a nice hot shower Will and I made our way to the farmer’s market. We spent a fair number of hours picking out a weeks worth of groceries. I was glad will had grown up strong to be able to haul many of our bags. 

“I just think we should eat more flaxseed.” 

“I’m not stopping you from getting flaxseed Will.” 

“Okay then I’m gonna get some flaxseed.” 

“Then go.” 

Will walked over to a vender selling some while I meandered two stalls down to an organic dog treat vendor. Marcy, who ran the booth, had known Alsace and Lorraine since they were tiny little puppies and had been both mine and Will’s third grade teacher. 

“There’s my favorite girls!” Marcy exclaimed as I approached. 

Alsace had taking a strong liking to Marcy however Lorraine continued to be stand offish with everyone. 

“One of these days Lorraine, you’re gonna let me hold you.” 

I laughed “How are you today Miss Marcy?” 

“I’m very good dear, retirement is treating me well, how have you been? Those late nights at the bar taking a toll?” 

“Nope, not in the least. I really love it.” 

“That’s great, ya know I never would have thought you’d have become a bartender but it does suit you. Speaking of suits where is your beanpole brother?” 

“He is at the booth with all the flaxseed.” 

Marcy looked down to where Will was. “Every time I see that boy he is less and less like a bean pole.” 

“It’s all those football team drills.” 

Will arrived where Marcy and I were standing “Miss Marcy it’s great to see you!” Will exclaimed giving her a hug.

“You look well William.” 

“I am!” 

We continued to speak with Marcy for a few minutes before finishing up the market and heading home. 

__________________________________

Thursday nights were Laura’s usual nights which meant that the rest of the days were void of Laura which only proceeded to make me dwell on whether I scared her away or not. Monday night, however, brought another good distraction. A brawl had broken out between some very loyal Nets and Knicks fans. It wasn’t even basketball season yet. 

The police had come and squashed the brawl resulting in me having to close up the bar early. I walked into my apartment to find Will arguing with Spyro the dragon who was bouncing around on the screen while Will spastically moved the controller around in hopes it would make Spyro jump in that direction. 

He paused the game and looked at me “You’re home early.” 

“There was a Nets/Knicks brawl and the Police came.” 

“Figures...”  
I sat on the couch and sighed “Do you think Laura will show this week?” I asked for the thousandth time in the past few days. Will was tiring of it. 

“Yes.” 

“Your yes doesn’t sound believable.” 

“How about I make us some steaks, you like steaks.” Will smiled at me. 

I was lost back in my own little Laura thought centered world “I wonder if Laura likes steaks.” 

Will didn’t respond but instead made his way to the kitchen to make dinner.

__________________________________

Tuesday night saw a much more boring bar scene. There were a few stragglers but other than that I left the small tv on to some PBS programs which were quite interesting. I kept hoping that somehow Laura would show up on a non usual night. 

Wednesday showed no Laura either. It was more lively than Tuesday though. Though not a good lively. I had returned home from a Laura-less shift to find Will asleep on the couch with his hand bandaged and Alsace and Lorraine curled up next to him. 

I shook his shoulder “William!” 

He awoke and looked around before focusing on me. “Carm, you’re home.” 

“Why the hell is your hand bandaged William! Don’t tell me something minor because that is hospital grade gauze.” 

He sat up “It’s okay Carm.” 

I cut him off “William!” 

“Okay, I was in the locker room after practice and had sat my backpack at my feet to open my locker, a buddy came over to say hey and as I turned I tripped on the strap and grabbed at the bottom part of the locker door slicing my hand open. But it’s all good cause the nurse sent me to the hospital and it was just a few stitches so I’m all good to go!” 

“Why didn’t you call me? Or the school for that matter? They should have called me.”

Will drew back a little looking guilty. “So I may have told them in a haze that I would call you and I pretended to but I knew you would drop everything and come when it was a minor thing. I thought I’d wait for you to get home which now I realize was a bad idea.” 

I shook my head “Will...” I sighed. “Fine, I guess as long as you’re fine, don’t do that again though.” 

“I wont. Well the not calling part, I can’t promise on my clumsiness.” 

The next day was Thursday, Laura’s usual day. I woke up at my usual time, ate some lunch, tried to distract myself some more which was useless after the first two days. The shift started out the same as usual. An afternoon drunk with a vendetta against Hitchcock films. A group of older socialites sipping margaritas. A couple of tipsy Giant’s fans. And a creepy guy standing by the door who usually would disappear around 6, though I had a suspicion he was an undercover cop. But I could care less as the bar followed all procedures and I carded everyone. 

It was an hour and a half till Laura’s usual appearance time. An hour and a half of me waiting. It was turning out to be harder than the entire past week. The place was starting to fill up with the Thursday crowd. 

An hour till Laura’s usual time. My waiting was getting worse. There was obvious worry on my face. I had taken to pacing behind the bar. The bar goers were drinking slower than usual which ended up giving me more pacing time. 

Half an hour and I was freaking out. She probably wouldn’t show. I had probably scared her off. The time was going to arrive and Laura would not show and I would have to begrudgingly carry on with my shift and drag myself home in utter defeat. 

Fifteen minutes...

____________________________________

Author’s note: The farmers market I reference is a Saturday market but for the purpose of the story I’ve made it a Friday and weekend market. 


End file.
